Batman Beyond: Never say Never
by Jakazul
Summary: After the murder of Harlequin, Bruce finds out that an old villain has returned to Gotham. But can Terry handle him alone? *All 5 chapters up!* Please R&R!
1. I: Death in the family

THIS STORY COPYRIGHT JAKAZUL 2003, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED / CHARACTERS   
PROPERTY OF DC COMICS  
"Come on Ter' you gotta come!'  
"Hey I don't know if you've noticed but partying sounds like a lot more fun than being   
shot at or crushed into a wall! I gotta work for Wayne."  
"Yeah bein' Batma..."Max's voice trails off as a tall kid in a blue t-shirt goes past.  
"What?" The kid asks."  
"Batman...I'm working at a zoo for extra money."  
"Oh." The kid walks off.  
"So anyway I'll be there soon as my shift's over."   
"Gotcha Ter' just don't work too hard huh?"  
Terry walks away muttering, "I only wish."   
***   
The night's cold.  
Extremely cold.  
Terry perches, shivering, atop a gargoyle looking over the city.  
On his visor he has the (Bomb Countdown Clock) up to tell him when his shift's over.  
001:001:020  
001:001:019  
Just over an hour to go.  
Terry glances around.  
There's nothing going on.  
He gets up.  
It's party time!  
***   
It's late at night.  
Harley Quinzell, known now as Nana Harley, is about to get into bed.  
Her grand-daughters, twins known as Dee Dee, have just left the house to go to a 'Last   
Day of School' party.  
A tall man now stands in front of her.   
His left hand seems to be a machine with an arsenal of weapons.  
He wears a blue and red costume with a full-face mask and a strange robotic eye that   
keeps swiveling and focusing.   
"Ah... Ms. Vuinzell I presume."  
"Quin...Quinzell. Who are you?"  
"This is vhat I said, no? Anyvay you are about to be var past caring vhat I say or how I   
say it."   
"Oh yeah?"  
Harley leaps out of bed and flips to the other end of the room.  
She elbows a panel in the wall.  
It falls open to show millions of pictures of a man in a purple suit and green hair.  
"Oops! Wrong panel."  
She elbows the next panel.  
It shatters and an oversized gun with a boxing-glove at the end falls out, into her waiting   
hand.  
"Sianara, accent boy!"  
The man laughs.  
Then she pulls the trigger.  
The boxing glove spirals out and explodes in the mans stomach.  
"That'll teach you to laugh at an old lady!"  
"And vhis vill teach you not to do vhat!"  
***   
Terry walks into the party and crosses to Max.  
"Nice of you to show up."  
"Hey I came as fast as I could."  
"True...Anyway there's two people here you might recognize."  
"Not criminals anything but..."  
"Hi we're the Dee Dee's!"  
"...Criminals."   
***   
The tall man in blue picks up Harley, lays her in her bed and pushes the covers over her   
lifeless body.  
"Vhat vas it? Oh yes. Sianara!"  
He pulls on a gray overcoat and wraps his robotic hand in fake bandages.  
"Bye now."  
He walks out of her apartment, slamming the door behind him.  
***  
"Criminals? Hey!"  
"S...Sorry I was..."  
"Hey Dee? Isn't this the cute one that we saw when we was runnin' with the Joker?"  
"Yeah I think he is."  
"You've met?" Max asks.  
"Um...Not on quite as pleasant grounds but...yeah."  
"Well... We dropped from the Jokerz they weren't too nice 'bout Nana Harley."  
"Who can blame'm?" Terry mutters.  
"What?   
"Well you know. I mean look at who she was."  
"You don't like Nana Harley?"  
"I've only met her once or twice. She's not my favorite person but..."  
"Well you're not our favorite person. BYE!"  
"Good riddance!"  
The Dee Dee's walk out.  
***  
A scream rips through the night.  
The Dee Dees stand gazing stunned at the dead Harley.  
The last word they say before fainting comes through as a whisper but echoes more then   
the scream.  
"McGinnis!" 


	2. II: Sacrifices

"I didn't do it!"  
Terry McGinnis backs up against the wall of the alley.  
His batsuit is on but his mask has been torn off as has his belt.  
"Yeah right! You were just saying you hated her!"  
"I never said hate! Never!"  
He desperately looks around for someone to back him up.  
Just the Deeds.  
Fat chance of them helping.  
Especially since they're the ones who think he did it.  
The one on the left lunges at him.  
He grabs her wrist and flicks her over his shoulder, smashing her into the brick wall.  
"Well there's a solid argument!" The other says watching her sister slump to the ground.  
"Hey I didn't kill her!"  
The remaining Dee leaps at him already thrashing.  
He falls to the ground as the tornado of fists hits him.  
He pushes her away and she tosses him a gun.  
"What?"  
She pulls out a gun herself.  
"Now we're even! You can try but I'll shoot you first!"  
"Look I don't do guns..."  
KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM!  
Terry falls as two bullets dig into his shoulder.  
"Hey no fair!"  
"Was it fair for you to kill Nana Harley?"  
"I didn't!"  
"Right!"  
She reloads.  
"Hey," he says tossing the gun away. "Haven't you noticed that I'm not shooting back?"  
She stares at him, drops her gun and starts to cry.  
"Man, talk about a mood switch."  
"I'm...We're...Sorry."  
"Yeah, so am I. Which one of us got shot here?"  
"B...Both."  
"Huh?"  
"You and...Harley."  
***   
"Alright we have two clues."  
"What?"  
The Deeds and Batman stare around Harley's apartment.  
"First of all, the recording of the killer. I ran it through an accent check. He's Russian.   
Speaks with an old Russian accent. And I mean old. Like, before the language changed in   
2037."  
"OK and second."  
"He knew Harley's real name."  
***  
Terry stands in the Batcave behind Bruce.  
The Deeds have been put in a hotel room and Bruce is checking on the clues.  
"OK I've narrowed it down some."  
"What?" Terry looks up.  
"Well," Bruce continues. "The accent isn't hard to explain. The guy's just older than you.   
The name is what I looked up. Only people who would've known that would have   
worked in Arkhum or Blackgate. I know an assassin who used to work in Blackgate. A   
Russian assassin."  
***  
Accessing Batcomputer file...   
Real Name: Anatoli Knyazev  
Alias: KGBeast   
Bio: Anatoli was an assassin who was employed the KGB (The Soviet Union's secret   
police and intelligence agency around the time of WW2)  
He went on an unauthorized mission to kill ten key people involved with a US Strategic   
Defense Initiative, nicknamed the "Star Wars" program.   
The Soviets warned the American government about Knyazev's plan but he was still   
highly successful, killing seven of the nine officials.   
Knyazev came to Gotham and soon fought Batman.  
He killed over one hundred people in Gotham City to achieve his goals.  
Once set on a goal Knyazev does not give up.  
Once when he was left tied up by Batman he used an axe to chop off his left hand and   
escape.  
He is extremely dangerous and is always armed.  
***  
"Woe." Terry sits atop a roof across from Harley's apartment, reading the file over.  
"This guy sounds bad."  
"He is." Bruce's voice comes through.  
"He's escaped us almost every time he's been captured. He was thought dead but... Who   
really dies in Gotham?"  
"Harlene Quinzell."  
"Are you sure?"  
"They found the body. She's been buried."  
"Been there. Done that. Don't count on it."  
"Ok. My question is why would this guy, the Beast I mean, why would he want her   
dead?"  
"I don't know."   
"And why would he come back here?"   
"To see if the twins are there. Unless..."  
"What?"  
"There's been a break-in at there hotel!"  
"Great." Terry rolls his eyes and leaps off the building.  
***  
Terry arrives at the hotel and darts through the Deeds window.  
"Hey!"  
"Sorry."  
Terry jumps off there bed where he landed and runs into the next room.  
One of the Deeds walks in.  
"What are you doin' here?"  
"There's been a break-i..."  
SMASH!   
The door splinters open as the man in blue and red steps in.  
The man who murdered Harley.  
The man who threw Terry off the hotel.  
The man who Terry remembers seeing but can't place.  
The man who put Terry where he is now.  
Lying motionless in a pool of rain and blood that's slowly washing into the gutters with   
the twins kneeling in front of him and Wayne shouting into the intercom.  
Terry managed to keep the twins alive.  
But how much did he have to sacrifice to do so? 


	3. III: Legend

Terry wakes up in bed.  
He looks around at the hospital room as it comes into focus.  
Bruce Wayne stands at the foot of the bed and the Deeds by the side.  
"Wha..." Terry starts to get up but pain shoots through him sending him back down.  
He winces and touches his stomach.  
"What...Happened?"  
"You got yourself shot."   
"Hey old man, don't talk to him like that!"  
"You have no business telling me how to talk to..."  
"Hey...You do...Know I'm here...don't you?"  
"Sorry."   
"What happened McGinnis?"  
"I just asked you that."   
"And I answered. I want details on this guy. Who was he? What'd he look like? What'd   
he say? I need everything."  
"I don't know much."   
"I do!" Dee Dee hops up.  
Bruce rounds on her, "look, girl, this doesn't concern you."  
"The guy killed Harley I'd say it has more to do with me than you."  
"Alright," Bruce says, his voice coming out as a hiss. "What?"  
The Deeds edge back. "Um...He was wearing red and blue and he didn't have a left   
hand."  
"Was there anything over his left arm?" Bruce's voice has lightened some now.  
"Uh... Some kinda gun or something. It's what he blasted McGinnis with."  
"The Beast!"   
***  
Bruce Wayne stands in front of the old batmobile.   
His mask is pulled over his face.  
His belt is locked on.  
The black bat emblazoned on his chest shines of the glare from the headlights.  
He is vengeance.  
He is the night.  
He is...  
BATMAN. 


	4. IV: Gotham's never simple

Wayne crouches on the roof of the hospital.  
Terry's room is dark.  
The Deeds are one floor below him in the hospital cafeteria.  
Only a few lights are on anywhere.  
He feels his head.  
Sweat.  
It's been years since Bruce dawned the cape and cowl of Batman but... Who else can   
defeat the Beast?  
He had said never again.  
Never.  
But they always say...  
Never say never.  
Well, now it's time to prove that he's still got it.  
He isn't that old.  
Well...  
Neither is KGBeast then.  
He stands and his cape billows out.  
A man in a gray overcoat has just walked into the hospital.  
A man with his left arm in a sling.  
But who goes IN to the hospital with a cast on?  
***  
The Deeds get up and start to walk for the elevator.  
See if Terry's awake and leave.  
Too bad it's never that simple in Gotham.  
*** 


	5. V: Final Battle

A man in a gray overcoat and a cast on his arm storms in to the cafeteria.  
He picks up a man with one hand and, in a deep accent yells.  
"Have you seen two tvins vith...?"  
He stops and throws the man into the buffet.  
The Deeds stop and turn, the, seeing who it is run into the elevator.  
The door slams shut just before KGBeast reaches them.  
He tears off the cast to reveal his arsenal hand.  
"Time to die girls!"  
He smashes the hand into the elevator door and rips it apart just as another figure   
shrouded in gray and black steps in.  
"Game's up Beast!"  
Batman steps in and runs at KGBeast.  
"No, Batman. It's just begun!"   
"You never learn new lines do you?"  
Batman leaps from a table and body slams KGBeast into the empty elevator shaft.  
The Beast grabs the elevator cable with his right hand and grins.  
"Like vhis stops me?"  
He holds out his left hand and a knife slides out.  
He begins to saw at the cable and Batman leaps at him.  
The tumble down the elevator shaft as Batman gropes for something to hold on to.  
Suddenly they smash into the roof of an elevator and topple in.  
KGBeast digs his knife into the wall were Batman's head was moments before.  
"You haven't changed at all!"  
He turns just as Wayne pulls the emergency brake.  
"Oh I've changed."  
Wayne pulls out a battarang and slices a hole in the wall.  
"I'm better."  
He punches KGBeast in the face and knocks him out of the elevator.  
KGBeast climbs back in, whips Batman to the floor and pushes his face half way out.  
He rips off the mask and then laughs.  
"You're just an old man!"  
"What'd you expect?"  
"Guy's in Gotham never die!"  
"I'm not dead am I?"   
He knees the Beast in the crotch, delivers an uppercut to his jaw and sidekicks him out of   
the car.  
"Say hi to the ground."  
SMASH!  
***  
"I can't believe it!"  
Terry stands in the batcave pulling off his mask.  
It's 3 days after and he is out of the hospital.  
"You took on KGBeast?"  
"I'm not dead yet."  
"Yeah but... Wow."  
"You sound surprised."  
Terry stands silent, unsure how to answer the statement.  
"So is he dead?"  
Bruce smiles.  
"Nobody dies in Gotham." 


End file.
